Prisoners Breaking Jail  

“About 1 o’clock Tuesday night Sheriff Burns was awakened at his house by Frank Record, recently  confined in the county jail here on a charge of horse stealing, who informed him that the remaining prisoners had made good their escape from the building. 

Hurrying to the spot the sheriff found the report only too true, as but one prisoner remained in the jail, a Chinaman arrested about two weeks ago, while Jacob Byard, who was awaiting trail  for murder in Hall Valley some months back, and Charles Buck, arrested on a charge of attempted assault, had both fled.   

According to Record’s story Byard has been at work ever since his imprisonment trying to cut his way out of the cell using for this purpose  a small saw which is supposed to have been left secreted in the jail by some former prisoners.  In fact, Ernest Christison, while confined there on a  charge of cattle stealing, is said to have commenced cutting through the steel wall of the cell nearest the rear of the building, beginning at a point in the wall about shoulder high and cutting downward, and to have progressed about six inches, and it was a continuation of this that Byard worked upon. 

As Record has frequently been playing a violin in the jail in the evening, it may have been that Byard accomplished much of his work under cover of the sound of the instrument, and this being the darkest portion of the building is probably a reason for its not being discovered.  Finally, on Tuesday night, he had succeeded in cutting an opening about 10X16 inches in the steel wall of the cell, through which he and his fellow prisoners got into the corridor between the cage and the otter wall.     

Here they first tried to pry open one of the windows, but failing in that, mounted upon the flat top  of the cage from which they reached the trap door leading into the upper portion of the jail.  Walking along to the rear end of the building they commenced to remove stones from the gable, working directly under the point of the roof. 

It did not take long to remove enough stone and lime from the wall to allow of a man climbing through the aperture.  This accomplished, one of the prisoners reached the roof through the opening, and making his way to the front end, secured a ladder which stood against the building.  Carrying this to the rear of the jail and placing one end upon the ground, the prisoners easily made their escape. 

Upon getting out of the building Byard and Buck are supposed to have at once started off, while Record first went to his father’s house, not far from the jail, and in a short time went and aroused the sheriff as above stated. 

Men on horseback were sent in different directions as soon as possible, and the telegraph wires have been used to make public the escape and description of the prisoners, and cause their arrest.  Up to this time, however, they have not been captured.”  FLUME 3/24/1884.